Ambitious Hawkers Wharf project for North Shore isn't happening

Pour one out for Hawkers Wharf: The ambitious “food hub” and community gathering space planned for North Vancouver’s Harbourside condo development isn’t going to happen after all.

The planned 2.2-acre space was envisioned as a multidisciplinary food hub with a goal to unite locals looking  to support local purveyors from the ground up, and was meant to open in the summer of 2016.

When there was scant progress at the site and delays aplenty, the outlook looked grim. In fact, in early September 2016 Daily Hive received a tip that the project was canceled, but in response, Hawkers Wharf founder Chris Jerome indicated that the information was false.

Still, the North Shore News is reporting that “the developer and the proponent pulled the plug in September.”

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In this case, the developer was Concert Properties, who went to work with Jerome in early 2015 to plan this “food incubator” in North Vancouver.

Hawkers Wharf was meant to offer an open-air marketplace with over 40 vendors setting up shop in converted shipping containers. With an experience similar to that of a farmers’ market, customers would be able to move from stall to stall to select local and artisanal goods and produce. On-site dining plans were extensive, ranging from more casual grab-and-go to full sit-down experiences, including a 6,000-square-foot bar area.

Courtesy Hawkers Wharf

Concert’s goal was always to have Hawkers Wharf be a temporary project that would establish the community as a food-lovers’ destination, and with virtually no progress on the site, the developer will be determining a way to repurpose or move out the few “hawkers boxes” that had been placed at the site.

“The intention is for a more permanent version of Hawkers Wharf to be integrated within the completed Harbourside development,” posited Concert Properties in 2015 with the announcement of the project.

Hawkers Wharf’s Facebook page hasn’t been updated since June 2016, and their website is still live. We have reached out to Jerome for comment and will update if further details are supplied.